Vode An
by Ven'aranar Angel
Summary: 'Same heart, same blood'. But regardless of how untrue those words have become, their sentiment still stands. The Republic's soldiers no longer all share the same blood, but they still share the same life: one of duty, loyalty, and servitude. No matter where each soldier came from, no one had a life different from the others when it came to the GAR. Sequel to 'When Will This End'.


_A.N. ~ hey, guys. I'm glad I managed to get this chapter up in a decent time frame! I should also mention that I do not own Star Wars, just my ONs (Original Nouns). You guys know the usual things most authors prattle on about in their notes, so I won't bother you anymore :)_

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><p>"Oh kriff, oh kriff, oh kriff!"<p>

"We're dead."

"It's the end of the wooorld!" Freeze, Ranger, and Kat howled respectively, the teenager cackling as they fled from a furious, snarling Trandoshan.

"I told you we shouldn't have taken the last cookies. Especially after _he_ claimed them!" Ranger grunted, sliding on the freshly-cleaned floor and colliding shoulder-first with a wall before scrambling for friction again.

"BWAHAHA! I really don't care at this point!" Kat laughed, grabbing her brother's arm and helping him get his footing again. "Man, leisure boots have pitiful traction."

"No kidding. And regardless of your preference, Churk can leave a nasty scar and I don't want a new one!" That just got another maniacal chuckle from his sister.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Freeze growled to the sixteen-year-old.

"No, Twitch is the crazy one. _I'm_ the deranged one."

"Is there a difference?!" The older clones challenged as they practically dove on top of Claws, who was serving as their getaway cat. The nexu purred in greeting before beginning to run, bounding down the halls of the _Defender_.

"A small one. Oh, yes! These ones have a lot of chocolate in them!" She held up the clear plastic container, displaying pale brown circles dotted with dark smudges and eliminating all focus on her sanity.

"Thanks!" They slowly blinked, trying to process why the food was no longer in Kat's hands. Looking back, the three saw Cheshire hanging from the vents, half in and half out, holding the container in both hands.

"Wh-wh…Claws! Turn us around right this instant!" The teenager howled.

"Oh, let the catfight begin." Freeze smirked.

"Your puns are horrible." The girl muttered a moment before launching straight up toward where she'd seen the younger clone disappear. Her forehead and upper nose cracked against the grate and she fell to the floor, realizing Cheshire had been sitting on the cover to prevent her sister's ascent.

"You alright, shorty?" Ranger leaned over his friend, who only groaned in reply.

"I'll be going, then." The thirteen-year-old scampered out of view, moving with surprising speed for someone who could only crawl with one hand.

"Incoming!" Freeze yelped a moment before being tackled by Churk, tumbling on top of Kat, whose arm somehow got pinned, which dragged her along as the men rolled, and tripping Ranger, until it ended with a dogpile where the reptile was on bottom, the sixteen-year-old on him, and her brother-by-choice on top.

"Kriff, you two are heavy," she wheezed, trying with little success to get free.

"You're one to talk," the Trandoshan mumbled, promptly receiving a smack to the back of his head.

"Yeah, funny. Never mind the _two_ grown men on top of me." Claws squawked curiously, roughly nosing the older clones off her companion.

"Nah, still heavy," the scaly soldier snickered.

"I should have Claws sit on you," she threatened, rolling off and staggering to her feet.

"Nexus are _only_ around five hundred pounds, after all," Ranger chuckled.

"You took the cookies." Churk picked the teenager up off the ground by the back of her shirt, as though she actually _was_ a feline.

"Ack, yeah, but I don't have them anymore. The _other_ cat-themed teenager stole them." She proceeded to _hiss_, like an actual cat, and swipe at his arm, despite how futile it was. Unless she resorted to her gauntlets or partial nudity, she wasn't going anywhere.

"Who?" Her aggravator scowled.

"Um, that vague definition was probably referring to Cheshire, one of the Defenders. I really wouldn't try going after her if I was you, though. Every single one of those girls are a walking armory and very protective of each other," Ranger warned.

"You don't need to tell me. I had a one-on-one with somebody from that squad and every single one of them was giving me looks for days. Besides, they don't need to be armed to be dangerous." Churk, unlike many of his species, wasn't too concerned with his pride or appeasing his species goddess known as 'The Scorekeeper'. He didn't mind admitting defeat to a superior opponent.

"Well, I'm not going to just let that trick she pulled with the vent go. I'll be chasing her for now. Bye!" Kat wriggled, being dropped before hopping onto Claws, relieved to have a friend that could carry her when she was suffering from a nasty headache. Head-butting metal did that to people.

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><p><em>Hey, Tail, I should warn you that Steam's after you again. Something about 'being referred to as short',<em> Twitch smirked, glad to have the rare mental link with her close brother known as Bond Telepathy. It made warning him of mortal danger so much easier.

_Oh, she's still angry about that? Isn't it enough knowing we'll be the same height in a couple years?_ She could vaguely tell he was in the gym, and he in turn could tell she was on her way to her squad's barrack.

COs had the option of separate living quarters, however, the captain doubted she'd be able to sleep in a room that quiet. Being surrounded by others' breathing was comforting, especially when she woke from nightmares.

_Apparently not. So, how fast can you run, considering that she's almost at her full size and ready to separate your head from your body?_

_Isn't that a little extreme? A hard punch is usually the worst I get for a comment like that._

_This is _Steam_ we're talking about. She didn't get her name by making tea,_ the girl reminded, slipping past a couple troopers, one clone and one a Zelosian.

It was difficult to tell the sentient plants apart from actual humans, considering the only things visibly distinctive about them was their emerald eyes and sap-like blood.

_No kidding. Kriff, she's here. AGH!_ Twitch nearly laughed as she watched through her brother's eyes as Steam tackled him. Everyone else in the gym barely gave them a second glance. It was a very common occurrence.

The two rolled on the floor, struggling to gain the upper hand. They tumbled into the place between the punching bags and a wall and the teenager let her brother get on top, which resulted in him being clobbered by a swinging bag and allowing her to pin him.

_Ow. When did she get so good at this?_ The scout groaned.

_Well, I _did_ train her myself. If she couldn't beat you, I'd give her the talking to of a lifetime,_ the CO said, cringing as she sensed the weight of her sister's knees digging into Tail's stomach.

_So glad you think I'm the worthy opponent for your elite squad. Go make them fight Echo already. The guy can at least hold his own in a fight against you._

"Now, you may still have an inch on me, but I suspect you plan to overlook it in the future, right?" Steam tilted her head, using a sweet, friendly tone as though asking him to remember a sparring match.

"Yeah, shorty, I'll keep—ack!" The angry girl sat with a little extra force on top of him, making it far harder to breathe.

_Tail, I'd hate to have to kill Steam for hurting you. Please just apologize, the captain murmured. She also didn't want too much infighting among her troops, especially considering they were nearing their next battle._

"Alright, alright, sorry. It's habit from being around Twitch. Happy?" The commando grunted.

"Mmm…alright. Why don't we just remember this little talk, though, hmm?" The hothead patted his cheek before getting up and walking out.

_Deadly, deranged, and easily angered. You girls are sort of scary,_ the scout gulped.

_The females of the family shouldn't be trifled with. Anyway, you should probably get some sleep…and painkillers. Campaign's tomorrow, after all_. She finally got to her squad's barrack, taking in the sleeping Read, Arrow, Dream, Rogue, and Cheshire.

_Yeah. Goodnight, vod'ika._

_Night, vod._ She quietly took off her boots and belt before changing into nightclothes. The last person in would turn off the lights, so she got into bed and threw an arm over her eyes, trying to regulate her breathing and entice the fog lingering at the edges of her mind.

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><p>"Vhalan, hmm? Wonderful," Twitch muttered as she got ready, checking her guns, despite the fact that they'd been modified to recharge, and her gauntlets' sharpness. Her electrostaff was already on her back, overtop a seemingly normal black cloak which could actually become a sort of wingsuit.<p>

"I have no idea what you said, but you really don't look happy." Read, the eldest of the squad as well as the only one who could understand body language nearly perfectly, frowned. She'd proven to be the big sister for everyone, as well as Twitch's adviser in many cases.

"Forget about it," the captain growled, more harshly than she meant. The older girl, however, could see she hadn't meant to be so sharp, and just smiled.

"Alright, well, any great tips for when we're down there?"

"Actually, yes. The crystal formations explode if they absorb too much energy. Shooting them can have the same effect as throwing a grenade. The blue ones go faster than purple. The lighter, the better." The other girls had been listening, since she'd raised her voice.

"Oh, now that's the best news I've heard all week," Steam grinned.

"The bad news is that footsteps are harder to hear. If they have clankers, the tinnies won't exactly go 'clank'." The veteran knew she should have given the bad news first, but she was too preoccupied with darker thoughts to mind what she said.

"Oh, well, that also means they can't hear us, right?" Dream smiled, often the one to try keeping her squad mates in good spirits. And often the one to succeed in such matters.

"Got a point. Heh, they won't know what hit em even _after_ they're lying dead." Songbird, a medic with an attitude, cackled, arming herself with a DC-15S blaster rifle and her beskade: Mandalorian swords made of very strong, lightsaber-resistant ore.

"Well, seeing how they can't hit anything anyways, that's not too much of a surprise." Rogue joked, only bearing a single DC-17 heavy blaster pistol as a weapon.

The teenagers were soon ready, leaving the barrack and closely followed by their respective nexus; Ciryc being Twitch's, Jace belonging to Read, Naleeth Arrow's, and Stitch, who couldn't be separated from either Songbird or Cheshire.

They made their way down to the main hangar and beelined for a larty painted with gold and purple, in the likeness of pouncing nexus running along towards the cockpit.

"_Prowl_ better get us down in one piece this time. I don't feel like picking shrapnel out of places it doesn't belong again." Steam grumbled.

"Not to mention Dive would have a heart attack." Rogue reminded. The eccentric pilot _did_ have a soft spot for his ship.

"Hah, no kidding. Oh, speak of the devil. Hey, planning on getting us there alive today?" Song teased, greeting a clone pilot with a high-five.

"Nope, you're all going to die." He chuckled, expression already masked by his helmet.

"Good. I still want a rematch with a few people I already killed." Kat appeared, closely followed by Claws.

"Well, you've already had how many rematches with Bane after you 'killed' him?" Twitch challenged.

"Yeah, but Bane's a jerk. I want a real opponent." The cocky girl smirked, hand on hip and head tilted.

"Okay!" Bucky laughed, tackling the older girl without hesitation. They collapsed into a ball of writhing limbs. Hisses and mrows could be heard from Claws' counterpart, who really did live up to her name when it came to behavior. Hissing came as naturally to her as swearing did to most.

"Guys, save that energy for whatever we find planet-side," the captain interrupted after a few seconds. Kat sprang away from the fourteen-year-old with an indignant hiss.

"I meant somebody I had to shoot at to beat, not my brain-dead sister." Arrow got a dangerous look on her face. She'd actually become rather fond of her ditzy squad mate and hated any negative references to the younger clone's intelligence.

"Regardless, we're going to be late if we don't get our shebse moving, and I don't fancy getting on the general's bad side." Twitch shoved a thumb over her shoulder, all seriousness dissolving as Ciryc nuzzled her leg and she stooped over to stroke him.

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><p><em>A.N. ~ yeah, not the longest or busiest chapter I've had, but still a chapter. Have a good nightday!_

**MANDO'A DEFINITIONS AND PRONUNCIATIONS:  
><strong>

**Vod'ika: [vohd-EE-kah] little sister (not an official term)**

**Vod: [vohd] brother, sister, comrade, mate, friend**

**Beskad: [BESS-kahd] (a slightly curved saber of Mandalorian iron)**

**Ciryc: [seer-EESH] cold**

**Shebs: [shebs] butt, backside, rear, buttocks (also rear of building, etc)**

_P.S. ~ don't forget, Mando words are often pluralized with 'e' or 'se', which makes 'ay' or 'say' sounds._


End file.
